


Cause and Effect

by JoyDragon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Depression, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26746993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyDragon/pseuds/JoyDragon
Summary: Keith leaving left a gap that couldn't be filled. Only when he returns does he see the effect he caused. Klance
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 77





	Cause and Effect

**Cause and Effect**

Keith sighed heavily, watching with sad eyes as Lance walked away from him, spewing angry spanish slurs in his direction.

"Why do you do that?"

Keith flinched, turning in surprise to see Krolia crossing her arms at him and glaring. She must have been eavesdropping from around the corner.

"I don't know what you-"

"Keith." She barked.

He glowered at the floor. Of course he couldn't lie to his mother. The two years they'd spent together had brought them close, and now she could see right through him. He sat heavily on the lounge couch.

"You know how you left me and Dad to go back to the Blade?"

Krolia looked afronted, her yellow gaze become fiercer. They'd been over this topic a thousand times it seemed. "Don't you change the subject on me, young man."

He put his hands up in a placating manner, "No, no. I'm not. You left to protect us, even though it was the last thing you wanted to do."

The tension in her shoulders dropped. She stared at him, wondering where he was going with this.

"The last thing I wanted to do was leave Voltron. These people are the first real family I've experienced. Of course I didn't want to leave them." Keith looked down at his hands, pulling at a loose thread on his glove. "Don't get me wrong, Mom, I'm not trying to blame you for not giving me that- it's what you had to do. I just mean that I understand. I didn't really want to leave, but I had to."

Krolia sat down next to him on the couch. She brushed back his bangs. "Why?"

"Because of Lance." Keith answered. "He... he confided in me one day that he thought he should step down. He thought that with Shiro back, he would be booted out because for some reason he thinks he has nothing to offer the team."

Krolia hummed. "And you thought differently?" She urged him to keep talking.

"Of course I did! Lance is... Lance is so vital to this team. Not only is he actually a great shot- don't tell him I ever said that- but he doesn't realize how dependent everyone is on him. He eases tension, makes people smile, helps us to be a family and forget we're fighting frontlines in a war we didn't sign up for.."

Keith sighed, curling closer to the warmth of his mother as she put a comforting arm around him. Keith would never show the others how touch starved he was, but he had a lot of hugs to catch up on from his mother. Keith continued, "He couldn't leave. The team barely survived without Shiro, but if Lance had left? I don't think we'd have made it."

"And you think you are expendable?" Krolia frowned.

"That's not it..." Keith bit his lip. "Lance is essential to this team. Me, well, I'm good at fighting, and I still got to do that with the Blade. I was still useful in that way. And I.. had my own personal mission to work through." He smiled up at her. She squeezed his shoulder softly.

"Perhaps it's selfish of me, but I'm glad you left." She grinned at him.

Keith laughed. "Yeah, I'm glad that I found you. I'm.. glad to have you here with me, Mom."

"Me too, Keith." She paused. "And I think you matter more to this team than you realize. And I think that you unintentionally hurt Lance when you left."

His eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"Just as you feel strongly that Lance is vital to this team, he might have also thought the same of you. And for you to leave probably created a gap that could not be filled. I'm sure that affected him."

Keith shrugged. "I guess. He has been... kind of off since I've gotten back. Hasn't really talked to me, like we used to anyways. I.. I have been blowing him off though. Being a real dick."

Krolia pursed her lips. "I've noticed. Just go and talk to him."

"Agh." Keith rolled up from the couch, pacing. "It's not that simple, Mom."

"Yes it is."

"No! You don't understand..."

Krolia also stood, putting her hands on her hips and smirking down at him. "Actually I perfectly understand. I'm not saying you have to go confess your eternal love to him this moment, Keith. Just talk to the poor boy. He probably thinks you despise him with how you've been treating him lately."

Keith's face was flushed red. He really couldn't hide anything from her could he? But she had a point.

"I... fine."

Keith strolled around the castle hallways, searching for Lance. He wasn't in the kitchen with Hunk and Romelle, or the comm room with the nerdy Holt times three combo, or with Shiro, Allura and Coran at the bridge, or the training room or the showers doing some face mask or freaking anywhere. He even checked the observatory deck they would spend nights talking in, and the crafts room that Lance secretly spent time in knitting as if everyone didn't know. Where was he?

Finally, Keith decided to check Lance's room. Lance rarely spent time in there when he could be socializing with people.

And yet, when the door whizzed open, there Lance was. His back was facing the door, so he didn't notice Keith. A second shock came to Keith when he saw his own cosmic wolf cuddled in Lance's arms, whining softly. Cosmo's ears twitched and he watched Keith walk into the room, but otherwise didn't move. Lance was petting his fur softly.

Lance sniffled, and Keith's eyes widened. Was Lance crying?

Keith's mind scrambled, trying to remember exactly what he had said to Lance earlier that was cruel enough to make him cry. God, why was he such a moron, trying to push Lance away all the time? Of course he would fucking hurt his feelings, Lance was human. Keith just messed everything up didn't he?

"Keith?"

The boy flinched, locking eyes with Lance. He was so lost in thought he hadn't noticed Lance sit up and face him. They stared at each other for a moment.

"Uh. Hi."

"Hey."

Awkward silence.

Keith grabbed his arm, looking around Lance's room instead of at his open, vulnerable eyes. He looked at the pictures and posters, the Bi flag framed with fairy lights, the little knick-knacks he found lining shelves on the walls. "I... uh. I've been looking for you. You aren't usually in your room."

"Yeah." Lance answered, lifting one shoulder half-heartedly. "Spend most of my time here now."

Keith tilted his head. "Why?"

Lance looked down, petting Cosmo's ears. "I'm usually just in the way anywhere else."

Keith stood stunned hearing that, feeling like his own knife had just stabbed into his chest. He stumbled forward, grabbing one of Lance's wrists. "You don't actually believe that do you?"

The Cuban boy snorted in dry humor, finally spewing out what's been eating him up for months. "Well that's what I've been told numerous times. So yes, you start to believe it after a while. When Lotor was here, Allura was so taken with him she ignored basically everyone else. And now that Shiro is back, they're always making their plans and speeches together. Pidge found her family again. Hunk and Romelle are super buddy buddy. I'll hang with them but sometimes feel like I'm intruding on a date or something. I spend time with Coran a lot, but he's always so busy doing these magic tech things that I can't help with. So... I just come here. The space mice keep me company, but they tell Allura everything I say, so I don't say much to them anymore. Kaltenecker is my one true friend huh?"

Lance sighed, finally looking up after Keith hadn't said anything for a couple ticks, not that Lance really expected him to. Lance expected him to say he was being stupid and leave.

Imagine his horror when he saw tears in Keith's eyes.

"HOly shIT, are you crying?!" Lance got up to kneel on his bed, leaning towards Keith and grabbing his shoulders. Cosmo teleported away with a pop, they hardly noticed. "Why are you crying? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Quiznak, you're asking me how I am right now?" Keith wiped at his face. "I've been an idiot. Such a fucking idiot."

Lance hovered over him, confused.

"All this time, I thought if I left you'd feel valued on the team more, thought you still resented me if I ever did something even slightly better than you, but I wasn't really listening to you at that time, was I? Even back then, you were already feeling this isolated, and you tried telling me, and _I_ _left you."_ Keith's voice burned with self-hatred.

"Oh." Lance mumbled. "Well I- I don't resent you at all. I've accepted you're just the best. And yeah... I mean... I'm not gonna lie. That did hurt."

"Lance.." Keith sighed. He sat down on the edge of Lance's bed. "I'm really sorry. I thought that by leaving, it would make things better but it just fucked things up more huh? I'm really not the best. I'm just a guy that can work with a sword and a ship. Mostly anyone can do that."

"Not as good as you can." Lance said simply.

Keith huffed. "Well I'm obviously not the best at human socialization."

Lance's mouth screwed up slightly in a smile, a bit of his snark coming back to life. "Yeah, you're so awkward. You part alien or something?"

"Shut up." Keith rolled his eyes with no real malice, lightly punching Lance's shoulder. "But seriously Lance, I decided to leave partly because I thought you had more to offer. I'm impulsive and reckless, Black probably hated me." He joked.

Lance barely smiled at that. "Maybe, but Red missed you. About as much as I did."

Keith blinked.

"That's what we bonded over most. How much we missed our impulsive, emo samurai."

"L-Lance..." Keith felt his hands sweating, his legs trembling. "I missed you too, you know."

Lance hummed in disbelief, and Keith fumed. "I'm serious, Lance. I was on that weird time-phasing thing for two whole years. I had a lot of time to... think."

Keith heard the catch in Lance's breath. "Think about what?"

"About.. you. And... feelings." Keith grit out.

Lance looked up at him sharply. "Feelings? What kind of feelings?"

"Ah.. you know." Keith shrugged, losing his nerve. How was he supposed to say this to Lance's face? Lance would laugh at him, tell him to get lost.

Keith practically jumped out of his skin when Lance scooted closer to him on the bed, picking up one of his hands. He intertwined their fingers, and Keith felt like he might pass out.

Lance hesitated, "Feelings like this?"

Keith felt like he was choking, "Y-yeah."

"I see."

Keith sat frozen, not knowing what else to say. He'd basically just confessed to Lance- but Lance had instigated it so that meant he felt the same right?

Lance spoke, "So are you actually going to tell me what kinds of things you were thinking about me and feelings like this?"

Purple eyes met blue. Keith relaxed. This was _Lance._ Keith could be real with him, and Lance deserved the truth. Lance deserved to know he was loved.

"I thought about our friendship over the years. And I thought about how you're just so good and pure and loving. And I thought about how pretty your eyes are. And I thought about how cute it is when you pout. And I thought about how you drive me mad jealous with all your flirting. And I thought about how damn hot you look when you fight. And how much I... love you."

Lance's jaw was dropped open. "You... love me?"

Keith lost all the nerve he had as he dragged his eyes away from Lance's face and stared at the floor instead. He nodded hastily and tried to swallow. Key word being tried.

It was because he was looking away that he didn't notice Lance's hands moving towards his face. The caramel-colored palms braced against his cheeks and turned his face sharply towards Lance's, which was only inches away, no still moving-

Their lips met.

Keith gasped, his eyes going wide. After not responding to the pressure of Lance's soft, soft lips, he drew back slightly and cracked his blue eyes open. "Work with me here, Samurai. I can't be doing all the work like usual."

Keith snorted softly before leaning back in, closing his eyes and returning the pressure against Lance's mouth.

He pulled back suddenly, ignoring Lance's whine. "I won't leave you like that again. I promise."

Lance smiled gently. "Yeah, I know. And Keith? I love you, too."

"Yeah, I know." Keith smirked, melting back into him.

This was much better than fighting.


End file.
